Have you ever watched wicked people enjoying success? As a believer it can be challenging to your faith, but you don’t need to compromise your faith to prosper. The devil will always tell you that faith in God is for losers, and that you might as well just give up being “good” and play things the world’s way instead.

But we don’t want temporary prosperity. We don’t want prosperity today that we’re required to pay dearly for tomorrow. Wrong actions and attitudes have no future. Sin brings pleasure, but only for a short time. God is not mocked, we all reap what we have sown. No one sins and gets away with it.

We should never envy ill-gotten riches, because we don’t want the price tag that comes with the lifestyle. God has called us to a long-lasting prosperity and reveals that following Him is the key to our inheritance. We belong to the Lord and the whole world belongs to us.

Take comfort in the words of David if you see others taking shortcuts and moving ahead through deception or manipulation:

“Do not fret because of evildoers, nor be envious of the workers of iniquity. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb. Trust in the LORD, and do good; dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the LORD, and He shall give

you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass” (Psalm 37:1-5).

“Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin” (James 4:17).

Diligence in life means that we are working with all our heart, with total commitment. How do you put your whole heart into your work, school or your home? Recognize that what you are doing is unto the Lord and not unto man.

A halfhearted effort receives halfhearted results. That’s not prosperity! To prosper we need to work with a diligent attitude! There are some deceptive attitudes in Christian circles that are often disguised by religious terminology:

• “Whatever happens is God’s will so my input doesn’t matter.”
• “I don’t like my job.”
• “My ungodly boss doesn’t deserve my best.”
• “My job is only temporary so I’m not going to give it my all.”
• “I’m not one of the lucky ones who are gifted so I’ll just slide by.”
• “I tried the Bible way and it didn’t work for me.” 

The Blessing comes as you work. You will never escape poverty’s hold without good, old fashioned hard work. The river-life of continuous blessing comes through your hands, your mind, and your effort.

Blessing is God’s business. Finding what He can bless is your business!

In Jesus’ parable of the talents in Matthew 25:14-30, the servant who hid his talent had a wrong perception of his Master. He said “I knew you were a hard man.” The ruler only asked for a minimum increase. In other words, just do something with what I give you. He was not making it hard. He was making it fair. A wrong perception of God causes fear, and fear causes wrong actions that result in destruction.

God is for you! He understands the fallen environment you live in and has given you gifts to overcome in this environment:

He gave you the gift of eternal life so you would have peace of mind about your future.

He breathed into you part of Himself so you would have awareness of His presence.

He gave you the name of Jesus so you would have authority over all evil spirits.

He gave you His promises for every area of your life so you would know His best for you.

He is not hard, He is benevolent! Right thinking will bring right increase!

Where is the place you can go to obtain “maximum increase” in your life? God designed church so that the maximum number of people could gain benefit with a minimum amount of effort.

God directs a man or woman to prepare a message and preach it with anointing, so people can sit and listen and their lives will be increased and inspired. The result is a burden-free life with God’s ideas filling your mind and faith filling your heart to do the impossible.

This is the rich soil for increase that God designed for people, but many see it as an intrusion into their lifestyle. Only when famine comes do they run to the pastor for a quick fix, a drink of water for their parched ground.

Scripture tells us in Isaiah 53:4 that in fact Jesus has borne our griefs and has taken our sorrows and our pains, yet we ignorantly thought that He was stricken and struck down by God.

Many years ago I was traveling across Russia in a sweltering hot train with no air moving and no way to open a window. The flu was going around everywhere and I was coughing from a deep burning pain that was attacking my chest. I remember as I lay back on the bed I picked up my Bible, and as I was experiencing these symptoms of flu or bronchitis this scripture in Isaiah leapt out at me.

I said to the Lord, “I have not considered what you did on the cross for me and I have yielded to this sickness that is trying to take over my body. Lord, I know who You are, I know You paid the price so I don’t have to suffer this sickness because God put it on You.”  I remember at that moment with great confidence I said, “Lord, I will no longer consider you ignorantly, and right now in the name of Jesus I receive what you did for me 2,000 years ago and command these symptoms to go from my body!” I fell asleep right at that moment and woke up a few hours later without one sign or symptom of cough or a fever…not one symptom in my body at any level!

I encourage you today to take an aggressive stance against every form of sickness and disease trying to come against your body!

Most people think that their job is their work. That’s just not the case in God’s Kingdom!

Paul, talking to slaves two thousand years ago, told them to serve honorably with joy and there would be great reward for them. There can’t be a worse job with less natural reward, comfort or satisfaction, yet Paul looked beyond their slavery to their work of serving the LORD. Even slave labor is rewarded if done unto the Lord and not to men.

When reflecting on Peter’s work we don’t think of his fishing skills, even though fishing was his vocation. We think of his leadership skills in the church. We don’t model ourselves after Peter by getting a job on a boat!

Thinking of Paul the tentmaker, we don’t seek wisdom on how to sew tents. He earned money to pay bills by sewing, but we think of him as a great missionary and adventurer. He didn’t consider himself a sewer of tents, as but a man of God. How do you consider yourself?

Our own personal experience can be a formidable hindrance to walking in the abundance Jesus Christ made available to us. You might say, “I love God and I’ve never had any money. I’ve never been rich and God still loves me. If prosperity really is God’s will for me, then He would have given it to me a long time ago.” These objections are real, but that doesn’t make them legitimate! Just because we haven’t experienced something doesn’t mean it isn’t the will of God for us.

We lived in sin and experienced emptiness, separation and spiritual blindness before discovering salvation in Jesus. Does that mean it was God’s will for us to live in that dark world? No! We just hadn’t heard and responded to God’s Word on the subject. Our decision to act on God’s idea, His Word, and His substitutionary sacrifice for our sins opened a whole new world to us.

I believe we can change our personal experience in the financial realm as well. Armed with truth, you can go into the arena of need and come out a winner!

For many, salvation through Christ means an escape from eternal judgment. Often as I stand on the open fields of world evangelism, whether I am preaching or standing among the crowd, I find myself declaring the salvation prayer as if it were the first time I said it. Why? Because I understand the value of this word “Salvation.”

I am not simply uttering a religious prayer, but I am making a proclamation of my deliverance from fear, my redemption from sin, my discovery of healing, and the reality of God’s peace! This most simplistic Salvation Prayer opens my heart and my mind once again to the reality of God’s promises for me — His child!

One day as I was speaking to our partners via the internet, I sensed a strong presence of the Lord as together we made this simple salvation confession. Not an elaborate religious prayer, but a confession of the heart and a trust in the reality of Jesus and what He promised for you and me.

I cannot explain how such a simple prayer can transform people, churches, and even nations. Yet—I can declare to you that I have seen God respond to a simple heart desiring to know Him as Savior, healer, protector, deliverer, and comforter time & time again!

Let’s not make prayer difficult! Keep it simple! That’s how He designed it! Religion is the extra ingredient of unbelief added to the simplicity of Christ’s cross. Faith is the simple confession of a heart trusting in what He has done for us!

I’m trusting . . . are you?

Most people, as they reach their 60’s and 70’s, have a certain amount of regret over things they didn’t do, or see, or have that they wanted in life. They reflect on the limitations they allowed to stop them.

When we see the life of Jesus we don’t see any limitations that He experienced, except the unbelief of those around Him. One day we all will see Jesus face to face in a place of unimaginable glory and abundance. When He was on earth He carried Himself like He had access to all of heaven. When Jesus walked on the earth He spoke, acted, and experienced life at a level that brought a marvel to those around Him. They said: “What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him!” Matthew 8:27

Jesus was God, but He put off His God-rights and did nothing on earth that a human could not do. He clothed Himself in humanity to be our model. He became the standard for the New Restored man that would be made right with God by His substitutionary death.

This limitless life is what He is encouraging you and me to experience now. He says: “All things are possible to him that believeth.” He encourages us to pray our desires and expect them to happen. “Listen to me! You can pray for anything, and if you believe, you will have it.” Mark 11:23″ NL bible

Before you die, dare to think limitless in some area of your life. Understand that there is more to you than meets the eye. Jesus saw the real person you were to become!

“But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit you are of.” Luke 9:55

The devil wants to convince you that prosperity isn’t for you. If that doesn’t work, he’ll try telling you that prosperity isn’t for you today, but maybe tomorrow.

He pulls out his flip chart and starts reciting all the reasons why you don’t qualify. He wants to know what you’ll believe, so he can lock you into that belief system of limiting the unlimited God. Then he’ll recite to you the reasons for your poverty:

“God wants to keep you poor to train you.” 

“God has hidden blessings for you in poverty.” 

“Jesus was poor and you’re following His example.” 

“Poverty is a form of holiness.” 

Don’t allow yourself to land on his flip chart! Keep your spirit alive! Paul said, “Now to him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us” (Ephesians 3:20).

God has given you power! You are not a victim, but a VICTOR!